Social Security
06/01/2005
Social Security
Hello,
For those of you planning on attending the Social
Security Town meeting tomorrow in Winona here are some
talking points generously put together by Marti Oakley
of Watkins MN. Marti gets most of her info from
government sources and her facts are well documented.
These points can certainly serve any of us to
become more educated about the privatization issue
regardless of whether we intend to attend tomorrows
meeting or not. Marti happily accepts correspondence
so if you would like more of her SS info or her
extensive research into other areas such as National
IDs etc please feel free to contact her at the listed
e mail address. By the way Marti’s e mail address is
firefly(one)a@peoplepc.com
not
Sincerely, Ric Studer, St Cloud
--- Pro Central Admin
> From: “Pro Central Admin”
> Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 12:03:56 -0500
>
>
> These are just a few points, which I hope will arm
> you with pertinent questions for the June 2 meeting.
> I could have made this list much longer, but these
> are points that will give you a good start in
> understanding what is really afoot here.
>
> (Tip: jot your questions down on a 3” X 5” card to
> make it easier to ask when you get a turn.)
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Marti Oakley
> To: pro
> Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 6:56 AM
> Subject: Social Security
>
>
>
>
> Social Security info:
>
> 1. SS is NOT an entitlement program in the same
> sense that welfare is. SS is an insurance program
> supported by workers and employers, who have
> personally invested in the insurance program, over a
> lifetime of employment.
>
> 2. The “number of workers per beneficiary” scenario
> is used to make a somewhat pointless argument. Most
> recently, “there were 16 workers paying in for every
> beneficiary 50 years ago, now there are only three.”
> BUT! those three workers are paying in more in
> taxes due to higher rates of pay, than 16 were fifty
> years ago.
>
> 3. Privatizing SS will cost taxpayers 2-3 trillion
> over the next ten years. That’s money that has to
> be borrowed from Japan or China. Why would a move
> to privatization COST money? Why would money have
> to be borrowed to make this “reform”?
>
> 4. The SS actuaries who are required to project the
> program out over 75 years say that there will be an
> estimated 3.2 trillion shortfall in SS. Using the
> same model, the tax welfare for the wealthy and
> corporations will cause an 8.7 trillion shortfall.
>
> 5. The Ryan/Sununu bill, calls for a 50% tax on ALL
> money withdrawn from privatized accounts. Add in
> the management and rolling fees for each account,
> and you have an effective rate of tax of 70%. There
> is nothing in any bill that protects private
> investments from mishandling, abuse or fraud. If
> the stocks or funds go down---you go down right
> along with them, and there is NO PENALTY for the
> owner of the stock or fund.
>
> 6. Even at this point in time---ANYONE can invest
> in the stock market if they choose, and if they have
> the funds to do so. Privatization is simply the
> means to force people who cannot afford these kinds
> of investments to invest in selected stocks and
> funds, and although you would technically be the
> owner of the privatized account--YOU WILL NEVER BE
> THE OWNER OF THE STOCK OR FUND AND THEREFORE, WOULD
> HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THE MANAGEMENT OF EITHER OF
> THESE.
>
> 7. Privatization is another form of vested pension
> funding. As with pension plans, the investing
> worker has no right to, or ownership of the funds
> until they are due, and actually paid to the worker.
> This allows large companies and corporations who
> have pension funds to do whatever they please with
> the fund, and even if it is mis-managed and wiped
> out, the company/corporation is not held
> responsible. The 1980’s Silverado Savings and Loan
> scandal, perpetrated by the Bush family, cost
> taxpayers 3.7 trillion to bail out, and the current
> United Airlines collapsing pension fund are
> examples. All pension funds are guaranteed by US
> taxpayers. So, when these companies/corporations
> default, waste, mismanage, fraudulently use, pension
> funds, they walk away without penalty and taxpayers
> foot the bill to make good on the pensions.
>
> 8. regardless of what you may have in your
> privatized account, a means test will be applied to
> your application for withdrawal from your account.
> In other words, the government will decide when and
> how much you “need”.
>
> 9. “You will be able to invest 3 to 4% of your
> taxes"-----too many people think this means ALL the
> taxes deducted from your paycheck. Not so! It
> means 3 to 4% of YOUR 6.5% contribution to SS, based
> on your total wage. And no bill out there will
> require employers to continue to contribute the
> other 6.5% to match your contribution. That will be
> wiped out.
>
> 10. Social programs are the largest “on-budget”
> expenditure by the FED. This is mis-leading. The
> largest expenditure over-all is military spending.
> In fact, we are not even allowed to know how much
> money is given to the Pentagon and agencies like the
> CIA and FBI, and the Black Budget (no one has any
> idea what this money is used for at all). 11 of the
> 15 most costly agencies in the Federal government
> cannot balance their books without using unsupported
> entries to balance. The Pentagon is the most
> wasteful agency of all, having lost over 3 trillion
> this year alone that cannot be accounted for.
>
> 11. The second largest expenditure by the Federal
> government is INTEREST PAID ON THE MONEY BORROWED.
> As it stands right now----we are paying out 42% of
> our total revenue in interest alone. If our
> interest rate rises just 1% this year and remains at
> that level for five years it will require an
> additional 45 billion annually just to pay the
> interest for each of the five years. We are now the
> largest debtor nation on the earth, and in the
> history of the world.
>
> 12. The top sources of revenue are FICA and
> individual taxes. If SS is destroyed, the trust
> fund goes with it. If the fund is no longer
> available to raid for expenditures other than its
> intended purpose, where is the money going to come
> from? Whose taxes are going to be raised to cover
> the loss of revenue?
>
> 13. The SS surplus is now used to make up for the
> 270 billion annual loss in revenues given as tax
> welfare to corporations and the super wealthy.
>
> 14. SS surplus is being used to finance the wars,
> and to cover up the massive loss of revenues.
>
> 15. A fund like SS that continually produces a
> massive surplus each year, cannot possibly be going
> broke, without interference from outside factors.
>
> 16. Although Federal law prohibits the sale of
> treasury notes and bonds held by SS to foreign
> investors, this administration has used these bonds
> and notes as guarantees for loans from Japan and
> China. Here again, if the Fed defaults---WE the
> TAXPAYERS will have to anti up the shortage of
> funds.
>
> These are just a few points, which I hope will arm
> you with pertinent questions for the June 2 meeting.
> I could have made this list much longer, but these
> are points that should give you a good start in
> understanding what is really afoot here.
>
> Marti
>